Skills Gap Challenges Hudson Valley Manufacturers
The nationwide shortage of skilled workers is finally receiving some attention in the national media and it’s being talked about at times on the campaign trail by incumbents and candidates running for State Representative and Congress. Here in the Hudson Valley Council of Industry training programs are filled, and that’s a positive development but much more is needed. Recently two Hudson Valley manufacturers received positive media coverage locally and on CSpan as this issue was discussed. Larry Fryer, President of Fryer Machine Systems in Patterson, with children in High School, says public schools are doing nothing to expose young people to career paths in manufacturing. The Council of Industry posted video from his meeting with Congresswoman Nan Hayworth on our Facebook Page. Here is the link to the video http://vimeo.com/channels/298363
Later in the week Hayworth told members of the Senate – House Conference Committee on extending the tax credit about her meeting at Fryer. Also on the tour of Fryer Machine Systems was Orange County Deputy County Executive James O’Donnell. The Orange County Industrial Development Agency and SUNY Orange in Middletown and Newburgh are moving as quickly as possible to establish new training programs to support manufacturing. So they wanted to learn directly what manufacturing employers needs are. Their goal is to start a new training program as the Fall Semester gets underway in late August.
A week earlier, the Council of Industry referred the local news team at Cablevision News in Dutchess County to Schatz Bearing in Poughkeepsie. The focus of the news story they broadcast was job creation in local manufacturing. Schatz President Stephen Pomeroy spoke about the hiring his firm did in December, and also how Schatz improves worker skills by taking advantage of available worker training programs, including the Council’s, and also programs run by nearby Dutchess Community College.
